It was hard to resist the temptation to spend all our time in Tokyo revisiting our favourite spots, but somehow we did manage to get in a few new eateries too. I learned on social media about this hotel, which has a restaurant that serves three vegan set menus in the evenings that you can choose from – there are no vegan options before dinner. You can choose Japanese, Chinese, or western, and they each have five small courses. We reserved a table online, and had to choose our meal at that time. All three of us went for the Japanese menu, because we were trying to get in as much Japanese food as possible. It was a nice restaurant, classy without being intimidating (we were in our comfy tourist clothes we’d been wearing all day and did not feel out of place), and it was quite spacious and relaxing. The food was generally good, without being totally amazing.

The appetiser was three small bites. The vegetable rice crackers, as they were called on the menu, were just like vegetable crisps, and were pleasant but a bit unremarkable. The deep fried aubergine was nice and had a great texture, but suffered from being served cold, in our opinion. The yuba, served in a little glass, was slippery and fun. I love a bit of tofu skin!

The pureed seasonal vegetable soup was a bit bland and boring, despite the little pots of pepper and rice cracker to liven it up. My expectations were quite low for a soup course though, to be honest. It certainly looked colourful and appealing, anyway.

The biggest course came next, the yuba and mushroom hot pot. This was basically a big plate of different kinds of mushrooms, vegetables, and tofu skin that we cooked at the table in a pot of broth. It’s always fun to cook your own meals like this! The mushrooms were really flavoursome, and I loved the texture of the yuba. Mother HH had never had yuba before and was not a fan unfortunately, so it might be a bit of a risky choice for someone who is not super familiar with Japanese food. I hoovered up her leftovers though, so it was a great day for me! She really loved the theatre of cooking at the table though, so that made up for it.

Three kinds of sushi came next – one with courgette, one with turnip, and one with red pepper. To be honest, they were not super flavourful, I’ve definitely had better. They all basically just tasted like their vegetable topping, but not really enhanced or complemented in any way. But it was nice to get some rice for something a bit more filling.

Finally, the dessert was rice cake in sweet red bean soup, and warabi rice cake. As long as you like that kind of gelatinous texture, this is a good dessert! (Again, Mother HH was a bit flummoxed by this one, finding the texture a bit unexpected for a dessert.) The red beans were nice and sweet. The warabi had a great texture and a nice matcha flavour. This was a good ending to the meal.

It wasn’t mindblowing food, but we really enjoyed the yuba appetizer, hot pot, and dessert. Even Mother HH, who was not so familiar with Japanese cuisine, found lots of things she liked about it and enjoyed the overall experience of trying these different things.

It’s always good to see more restaurants adding vegan options to their menu, and this seems like a fairly ambitious entry point. Hopefully they’ll make some tweaks to bring a bit more flavour as they find their feet. If you’re dining with meat eaters or looking for somewhere a bit more spacious and quieter than a typical restaurant, this is a nice option.